Yugoslavs

Yugoslavs (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslaveni, Jugosloveni; Serbian Cyrillic: Југословени; Slovene: Jugoslovani; Macedonian: Југословени, Bulgarian: Югославяни) is a designation that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slav people. It has been used in two connotations, the first in an ethnic or supra-ethnic connotation, and the second as a term for citizens of the former Yugoslavia. Cultural and political advocates of Yugoslav identity have historically ascribed the identity to be applicable to all people of South Slav heritage, including those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and the presently disputed region of Kosovo, Slovenia, and the Republic of Macedonia. Efforts were made to incorporate Bulgaria into Yugoslavia, but this did not succeed.

The term ethnic Yugoslavs referred to those who exclusively viewed themselves as Yugoslavs with no other ethnic self-identification. Yugoslavs has also historically referred to a Yugoslav supra-ethnic nation that has tribal ethnicities, such as Croats, Serbs, and others within it.

In the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the official designation for those who declared themselves Yugoslav was with quotation marks, "Yugoslavs" (introduced in census 1971). Quotation marks were meant to distinguish Yugoslav ethnicity from Yugoslav citizenship – which was written without quotation marks. Shortly before the dissolution of Yugoslavia many of those who had identified themselves as ethnic "Yugoslavs" reverted to or adopted traditional nationalities such as Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Muslims by nationality, Slovenes—and other small Yugoslav groups in Yugoslavia not officially represented by the state, including Bulgarians, Janjevci, Bunjevci, and Šokci. Some also decided to turn to sub-national regional identifications, especially in multi-ethnic historical regions like Istria, Vojvodina, or Bosnia. The Yugoslav designation however continues to be used by many.